#i'm writing this on only 4 hours of sleep. fuck maintenance for keeping up all this noise upstairs. at 8 in the morning.

[bloodymxrie]

who, or what are the trinity?

there are a few conflicting viewpoints here. in the LORE video that attempts to explain the game's lore in a minute or less, the trinity are described as "a trinity of euclidean horrors masquerading as beautiful goddesses" that saw that mankind was impure and sought their destruction. surely that must be the answer, right?

well it's been almost a decade since then, and a lot of our information has changed, especially with the release of eliza and skullgirls mobile. allow me to attempt to explain how i've pieced together skullgirls' lore.

in ancient times, there was a kingdom formed around a human woman named lamia and her two daughters, aeon and venus. parasites thrived in this age, being known to the public as "theons" and their hosts as "avatars." notice the language here. the root word "theo" in theons means "god", and representatives of gods in real life were often called avatars. the mysterious substance "theonite" was also responsible for the parasite's immense power. aeon and venus were seemingly bonded to their theons, khronos and abaddon, in life as they are in death. it's no wonder they would be in positions of high power back then with parasites that were able to rend time and space at will. but at this point, importance has not been placed on the girls themselves, only their parasites. the trinitarian religion did not exist until after their deaths, when double was sent down to spread the gospel of her masters. suspiciously, lamia herself is never implied to have had a parasite, but i'll come back to that later.

enter neferu, more commonly known today as eliza.

at the time of the kingdom's apex, neferu was lamia's righthand and governed alongside her. either through sekhmet's doing or her own lust for power, she betrayed her queen, violently killing her daughters and "destroying their kingdom", as double puts it. neferu was branded as the crimson scourge, and theons fell from their place of high importance in society, condemned now as pests or "parasites." i'd assume that would sour just about any person's outlook on humanity, honestly. but it's especially interesting that in lamia in mythology was driven to insanity by the murder of her children. and equally as interesting is the fact that she herself is never stated to have died. it's been mentioned before in lore posts on the official skullgirls forums, but there is no afterlife in the skullgirls universe or at least there wasn't intended to be. corpses are resurrected on command by the skull heart, which is (you guessed it) comprised of theonite. who's to say that when their avatars died, abaddon and khronos didn't resurrect their masters and ensure their continued existence on a higher plane? that's only part of what i think happened though. i believe that, consumed by her grief and desire for revenge, it was lamia's doing that propelled herself and her daughters to the status of divinity. and it was neferu's betrayal and society's contempt for theons following that incident that inspired lamia to go on a crusade against all of mankind. i say lamia instead of implicating aeon or venus because they seem... pretty chill about it overall. in game it's even stated to be their mother's plan, and while they are just as evil, they seem to be having fun with it more than seeking any kind of revenge. but who is lamia's parasite? double, duh.

not only is their physical resemblance uncanny, but the two are often stated to be one and the same, or at least the inverse of a common parasite-host relationship. double is lamia's avatar, her representative on the mortal plane as well as the window for the goddesses to see and operate through. i'm willing to suspend my belief and say that lamia is so powerful of a being on her own either through double's power or in spite of it that she is able to control her remotely, without physically even needing to be present. though it helps that double is made in her image, so to speak. lamia devised the skullheart, which would corrupt any woman who was not pure of heart, and used double to carry it out into the world. since she viewed mankind as vile, "defiling insects," she assumed that none could wield it without being corrupted by it's power, and that humanity's greed, similar to eliza's, would be their undoing. double then founded trinitarianism, bringing us to the present day. to recap, since i know that was a lot: the trinity were once rulers of a now fallen kingdom who derived their power from the theons, or parasites. they were betrayed by eliza and sekhmet, an incident which is said to have caused the prejudice against parasites today. upon the deaths of aeon and venus, their mother resurrected them and set out to avenge them by destroying mankind. and honestly, the girls are only there for the ride, i respect that.

[finsterhund]

The experimental (but working) meds I use for my PTSD night terrors are unavailable on like, the manufacturing level. My pharmacist stresses that what used to be minor shortages have become really bad supply chain issues. He (helpfully, not knowing better) suggested that I talk to my doctor about taking something else. Unfortunately though, this is THE ptsd night terror beta blocker. It's experimental and it's like, the only thing available to me knowledge as a result. There really isn't anything else.

Stressed to all hell about this. For reference the additional new antipsych I take before bed is good and helps and is working for its intended purpose but it's not for night terrors. I will still suffer night terrors without my damn prazosin. That's probably one of the things fucking with me as of late to be honest. Woke up and I had almost ripped my own shirt off which I haven't had issues with since being put on the stuff. (Granted it already had holes but you get what I mean)

God I just. Fucking hell man. Why does this keep happening to me.

Then I asked to go to the thrift store but roommate was mean about how I always go there to buy things (Nooooo??! As opposed to just licking the things I guess? 🙄) but I got to go anyways and I was responsible and I passed 5 music box mechanisms and did not buy them. I did just want to look and experience. I wanted something mentally engaging.

Thanks to Fishy I paid my stupid phone off and I also got a slurpee. Want to say it was a good time but I'm really stressed about how even though I got everything filled at the pharmacy I will still have to ration my night terror meds. No wonder I'm forcing myself to stay up till 4 playing pikmin 2 when I'm not motivated to game or read at regular hours of the day. Andy scared of sleeping moments.

In the thrift store me and an elderly person were perusing the same aisle (both looking for handmade quilts) and they had the same exact sounding breathing machine (oxygen machine I believe) that my grandpa had and got just beaten immediately by memories. Haven't heard that machine in person in probably since then to be honest. And I just. When I let them go past me and they said goodbye I thought I was going to cry but I didn't want to weird out a stranger so I pretended to still be looking even though I was done.

I have got to write back emails and do phone chores now that I've got my phone working again and do room cleaning and plant maintenance but god. Tired.

Maybe will try to nap. Hope that works.

[phoebe-lou]

A Forgotten Birthday

Fandom: The Umbrella Academy

Pairing: Number Five x reader

Summary: After saving the world from the apocalypse, Five struggles with living a simple life causing a strain on his relationship.

Word Count: 2009

__________________________________

5...4...3...2..1! Happy Birthday to me.

Sunlight shone throughout my room, and a gentle breeze drifted through the open windows. Looking over at the clock which now read 6.00am, I allowed a smile to grace over my lips. I had been restless all night and had been sat up worrying about Five like usual. I hoped today would be different, giving both of us one day to take a break from his obsessive apocalyptic nature.

Rolling over on my side, I was shocked to find the other side of the bed empty and Five's early morning 'signature' coffee missing. Letting out a frustrated sigh, I peeled back the duvet and groggily trudged over to the bathroom. After gently splashing some cold water over my face and brushing my teeth, I tossed my crazy-ass hair into a messy bun like a boss, and began the trek to the kitchen.

Expecting to be greeted with breakfast and a fresh cup of coffee, I found non other than a half-naked Klaus passed out on the table, and Five no where in sight. For fucks sake. I rolled my eyes and began making Klaus some breakfast as he'll need some hangover food to soak up all the alcohol. I decided to just throw in some toast and pour a glass of orange juice, as Klaus began waking up and mumbling something about his ass and chocolate pudding?

"Morning sunshine." I said with an amused smile on my face, whilst Klaus began to groan and pulled himself up into a sitting position.

"What rude bitch opened the blinds this morning?" He said after accepting a glass of orange juice I handed him.

"That would have been you, and your amazing Picasso skills last night I'm guessing."

Klaus looked up at the blinds to see that someone had cut them up to make some clothes, since there was underwear shaped holes missing.

"I was wondering what I was wearing, it's definitely not yours or Allison's."

"I think the yellow 'blind' underwear, really complements your eyes." I laughed winking at him, as I took the toast out and began buttering it.

"Danke."

"So what year is it again?" Klaus mumbled as he began munching on the toast I put in front of him.

"You mean the date Klaus?."

"Yeah that."

"It's __________ (insert birthday🥳)."

"Holy shit!" Klaus shot up, knocking his chair over and throwing the toast to the ground. Then sassily marched over to me, where he pulled me into a giant bone crushing hug. Jesus how does he wake up so fast?

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY YOU SEXY MIDGET."

"I'M ONLY 4"10, FIGHT ME BITCH."

"ALSO BEN SAYS HAPPY BIRTHDAY."

"TELL HIM I LOVE HIM."

*Meanwhile Ben just rolls his eyes*

"There is way too much Klaus and Y/N in here, this early in the morning." Diego huffed as he began filling up the kettle, not even bothering to comment on Klaus's attire.

"Good morning to you too Antonio Banderas." Klaus laughed and high-fived me.

"Besides it's only 7.00am." I smiled.

"Whatever."

"Oooo whose got your panties in a twist?."

"Anyway, Happy Birthday Y/N." Diego huffed.

"Awww you remembered, I knew you loved me really." I said forcing Diego into a hug which he eventually gave into. Suddenly another pair of arms wrapped around us. Diego became alarmed and shouted "What is wrong with you?!"

Klaus innocently smiled "I just wanted to be part of the moment."

"What's wrong with who?" Trust monkey boy to enter at this moment.

"I'll take this as my leave." Diego shrugged Klaus's arms off him, then subtly tilted his head at me, towards a card he placed by the microwave. Before marching off, after I gave him a beaming smile and a wave.

"Happy Birthday kid."

"Thanks Luther but you know I'm 28 years older than you."

"And your even more immature than Klaus, and trust me that's saying something."

"Rude. Hey don't agree with him Ben, you're supposed to be on my side." Klaus began to have a one-sided argument with 'Ben.' While I took this as a chance to slip out the kitchen and get ready.

*2 hours later*

Yes I'm high maintenance, and looking this gorgeous takes a while.

I finally finished my outfit my adding my new moon necklace, which was a birthday present from Luther (that was probably picked by Allison).

I sprayed some perfume and let my h/c  hair fall down. Mission was ago. Find Five. Get drunk. Party. Have an awesome birthday. Go back a few steps and whoop Five's ass for no breakfast in bed. Perfect.

I looked through the entire house, where there was no trace of him so decided to head over to Griddy's Doughnuts. As I opened the front door, I walked into Allison and Vanya who immediately wished me a Happy Birthday and began planning a girls night out. Just what I need after putting up with all this shit, Five keeps throwing at me.

*Flashback* - Warning Mild Smut ⚠️

I was lounging across Five's bed pretending to read this boring romance novel, whilst Five was consistently writing long, complicated equations all over his wall. I wasn't expecting this is what he meant when he invited me over to spend sometime together. My patience was wearing thin, as I tried to tell myself that he was just not used to having a life outside of the apocalypse. But I went through it with him, so if I can learn to adapt, he should to.

Sneakily looking over at him, I came up with a plan to draw his attention away. Gently placing the book on the bed, I slowly walked towards him and placed my arms around his neck. It was no shocker that he immediately tensed up and his brows began to frown deeper.

"What do you want Y/N?"

"Not much." I whispered in his ear, as I ghosted my lips over his neck. "Just a little bit of attention."

Five sighed and tried to focus on the equation he was working on, which had now proven difficult as I began to pepper kisses along his jaw.

"Come on, enough."

I ignored him and began to drag my soft kisses down his neck, sucking a little harder until I found his sweet spot. Got you.

"Y/N...." He drifted off, as the pen dropped from his hands.

"Hmm?" I smirked and began grasping at his dark hair.

He finally turned around and smashed our lips together sloppily, as our tongues began fighting for dominance. He obviously won. His hands began to gently slide up the bottom of my top, just resting above my hips as he began to draw circles on my skin. Suddenly blue sparks surrounded us as I found ourselves teleported onto his desk.

He shoved all of his work out the way and began making out with me again. I gradually lifted my arms up, as he began to pull my top off...

"Y/N?"

"Y/N?"

"Y/N?!!"

My eyes fluttered dreamily as I looked over at Five who was frowning at me.

"For gods sake, did you fall asleep?! I wanted some help with these equations as you're the only non-idiotic person I know. Ugh forget it, of course it doesn't matter if there's another apocalypse." He whined sarcastically, and turned back around, continuing his work.

Five's writing came to a stop and as I launched my book at the walk near his head.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" He shouted, finally exploding with frustration.

"You're an ass." I mumbled. He rolled his eyes and teleported away, probably before he did or said something he'd regret.

I preferred dream Five.

*Flashback over*

Arriving at Griddy's, I locked the car and walked over to the entrance and went inside. Surprise, surprise my 'affectionate' boyfriend was sat with a mug of coffee writing equations on napkins.

"Well, well, well good afternoon handsome." Five looked up irritated and forced a smile.

"What is it?" Was he joking?

"I thought we were going to spend the day together, you said you had something planned last week."

"We'll have to reschedule or something."

"Hahaha very funny grumpy-ass." He didn't look very amused, as he sighed and took a long sip of coffee.

"Can we talk later, I'm kind of in the middle of something?"

Alarms were going off. He had forgotten. Maybe he needed a little more convincing and a few hints.

"Well today is kind of a special day." He looked blankly at me before he gave me a genuine smile.

"Is it national coffee day? Thanks for reminding me gorgeous." He smirked and winked. Was he for fucking real?

"Maybe you should get some cake with that coffee."

"The sweetness ruins the bitter taste I like." You bitter old bugger.

"Isn't there something you're forgetting Five? Some sort of special day, for a special girl."

"Shit. You're right. Meet me at the house in 20 mins." With that he teleported away. Well my work here is done. I'm expecting a decent last minute party though.

After wasting 30 mins shopping, I decided to head back and see what Five had done. As I entered the house it was really quiet, until I reached the living room....

Where Five sat lounging on a sofa drinking margaritas with Dolores.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!!"

"Well when you say about a special day for a special lady, I remembered-d that it's been some years years since we found the lovely-y Dolores." He smirked cheekily at me and offered me a glass.

"Are you drunk?"

"No...."

"......."

"Maybe..."

"......"

"Yes..."

Just at the wrong time everyone came rushing in with party poppers, and balloons shouting 'SURPRISE.' I looked down to the floor with angry tears burning down my cheeks, I couldn't believe him. Everyone could sense the tension in the room, except for Five who still looked completely clueless.

"What's goin-n on? He slurred.

"Check the calendar..." I whispered.

I couldn't stand everyone looking at me with such pity so I went straight to our room, crying myself to sleep early.

*A few hours later*

I woke up to knocking at the door.

"Go away."

Hearing the familiar sound of Five's special jump I buried my face into my pillow.

"Can we talk...?"

"...."

"Please... Y/N."

"...."

"Can we just..."

"WHAT?!" I hissed, ripping the duvet off me to glare at him.

He straight away noticed my red, blotchy face, and long tear lines causing my mascara to run down my face.

"I'm sorry..." With that Five burst into tears. I'd only ever seem him cry twice so I wasn't sure what to do.

"I'm sorry-y... I've j-just been trying-g to be ready f-for something bad to happen-n again, as I know the c-commission wants order-r. We've both been-n to hell and b-back, and I can't imagine-e loosing you. I j-just wanted to keep-p you safe, but I've b-been so wrapped up in d-doing all these possible equations-s, that I've p-pushed you away.... Then I've been-n so preoccupied that I forgot-t your b-birthday..."

"Oh Five." I wrapped my arms around him as he began to sob into my chest. I whispered soothing words as I gently rubbed his back.

"You'll never loose me, and I'm not upset about my birthday that much. I honestly just miss spending time with you, and can't believe you prioritised coffee and a manikin over me you ass!" At this Five chuckled and began to calm down.

"You know I don't say it enough... but I love you Y/N."

"I love you too Five."

"Did you want to have that amazing party you've been telling me about?"

"Actually can we just spend the rest of today cuddling and watch a move?"

"Anything you want love."

"You were totally jealous of Dolores."

"Shut up Five."

_________________________________________

Hope you enjoyed it, let me know what you think 💖☂️

[darkloire]

what abouuttt the restaurant au? I love me some good restaurant/bakery/coffee shop stuff!

also I'm now sober and I hope alcohol didn't get you quite bad like me. I really shouldn't have drank two glasses of beer like water on a walk in the desert lmao

Well, I have worked in the restaurant industry for over 10 years as a host/server/bartender/shift lead/unwilling cook who cries on the line because I don't know the recipes and they dragged me back here because we were short staffed and now i'm stuck making all the deserts please god help me where the hell do we keep the berry compote, and I am telling you right now, we have favorite customers.

We have the people who are easy, who are friendly, and who we share personal stories with. We have people we see every day and worry about when they don't come in for a while, and when we see them outside of work we don't try to run and hide from. We have people whose orders we have memorized and who always ask to sit in our sections. For example: one of our regulars, Ms. Jane, is an older woman who comes in every night for a cocktail and to hang out with her friends. The bar manager who trained me even got so close to her that when she got sick in the pandemic and stopped coming in at night, he called her up to make sure she was okay. He ended up staying with her in her house for a while to get her to doctor appointments, took care of her and her dog, and generally just made sure she had someone around because her kids live out of state. We really do care about the people we end up serving a lot and getting close to.

My favorite customer is a guy named Jared. Jared asks to sit next to an outlet so he can charge his laptop while he works. He gets an unsweetened tea, a meal, and then all he wants to do is sit and work for hours while I keep his tea filled. If my shift ends before he's done with his work, I cash him out, he tips amazingly because he realizes the time he takes up at my table is time where I could have been turning the table half a dozen times or more, and then he orders a side of broccoli and another unsweet tea from whichever server gets the table he's been set up at for their shift. When he's finally done with his work, he pays his 3$ tab with a twenty and tells the server who took care of him and his tea to keep the change. Jared is my favorite because he is extremely polite and low maintenance. I like him a lot because I am shy, and he never pries into my personal life.

The idea behind this story would be about restaurant life, and that one, very special customer that always makes the server's night better. I suspect this story would end up on the sweeter side, and maybe even, dare I say it, fluffy? I like to stretch my creative muscles and because I don't usually deal in the overly sweet stuff, I thought this might be a nice way for me to try it out. I suspect a lot of true events from my life will slip into this story, as I have ENDLESS stories to tell about things that have happened in the restaurants where I've worked. It will be interesting to see which ones people pick up on as truth instead of just coming from my imagination.

For example, let's play two truths and a lie.

1. I have a scar on my leg because our industrial sized oven that literally had to be operated by a pen (the kind you hold in your pocket and write with) blew a fuse. We had to manually insert and remove the damn pen to keep the temperature consistent so things didn't get over or under cooked, it was a delightful month let me tell you. Anyway, the pen once got stuck and the door cannot be opened when the oven is on. I ended up prying the door open with a spatula to make sure the fucking food didn't burn and I burned myself horrendously instead. When I asked for the first aid kit, the manager handed me a bottle of ibprophen and told me 'this is the first aid kit'.

2. I once worked a shift that started at 4:30 AM and didn't end until around midnight, so I ended up taking a nap on my break in the Dry Stock closet. One of the second shift bartenders did not know I was in there sleeping on a fucking sack of flour and decided to 'smoke up' there because it had some of the best ventilation in the building. I ended up waking up and just staring at her before clearing my throat to let her know, 'hey, someone is in here and btw I'm the only manager on duty so please don't do that in front of me so I don't have to write you up', and she tried to convince me she was just using sage to 'clear out the bad vibes'.

3. We once had a terrible case of theft and my manager about lost his damn mind. He was literally standing behind the bar, counting money, and when it came up *really* short, turned to look at my coworker, shoved a fistful of cash at them and asked 'Do you want some free money?' When my coworker just stared at him bewildered, the manager literally turned to the customers we were serving and shoved money at *them* instead, and asked them in the most deranged tone you can imagine if maybe they would like to have some free money since everyone seems to just be taking it whenever they like.

Keep in mind, two of these things actually happened. I think whatever ends up slipping from my actual life experience with restaurants into the story will, if nothing else, be entertaining.

Anyway, I hope you're feeling good today, Anon, because it's been a while since I've had much to drink (it's sort of a joke where I work that I'm the only sober bartender there) and I have a very minor headache today lol.

Thanks for the ask!